


A Helping Hand

by Ellohcee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, Anxiety, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Panic Attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 05:11:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellohcee/pseuds/Ellohcee
Summary: Marinette thought her panic attacks were a thing of the past, until one sneaks up on her in school. The one person she least wanted to see it ends up being her light in the dark.





	A Helping Hand

**Author's Note:**

> This one was requested on tumblr from the 50 prompt challenge
> 
> Writing prompt #50 - Breathe
> 
> This work can also be found on my Tumblr [here](https://ellohcee.tumblr.com/post/173790949473/ive-read-your-literary-works-for-miraculous-and)

No no no, not here. She hadn’t had one in so long, why now of all times? Not lunch break when she was supposed to meet Alya and go over their plans for tonight. There was no way, she couldn’t face her best friend like this. She needed a quiet place alone to do her stupid breathing exercises and calm down. Someplace Chloe wouldn’t happen across her, otherwise the whole school would hear of this and her life would be over.

Marinette hurried down the hall to the science lab that she knew was usually empty on lunch period because it smelled of chemical and disinfectant. That would be her saving grace, she could find a corner in the room and sit down and breathe just like her therapist told her so many years ago, in-2-3, out-2-3.

She was almost in the clear, and she opened the door quickly and made to dash inside.

When her frantic eyes met Adrien’s, she felt her insides seize up as his face turned from greeting, to confusion, to worry. “Marinette?” he asked in concern, closing his bag where he’d been packing his things up. He moved towards her a step, face written with mixed emotions because she surely must look like a thing possessed.

Nope.

Nope nope nope no way. “Sorry wrong room!” she said hurriedly, trying to make it sound like something other than a pained exhale, before spinning on the heel of her shoe and booking it. She vaguely heard the worried shout of her name, but as she was practically sprinting, Marinette had already made it down to the end of the hall before darting left. Fine, she would use the cleaning closet if she had to. That place was dark and far away from the court yard and quiet and maybe even with a lock who knew.

And suddenly her frantic path had led her true, and she was in the closet and the door closed her into the dark without her even registering she’d reached the destination. She turned to face the barrier she could no longer see and backed up against the far wall, feeling the shelving units dig into her back and shoulder blades.

And then she heard Tikki, but couldn’t see the Kwami. “Marinette!” she said in alarm. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Nothing’s fine, I’m wrong,” she wheezed. “I just need a quiet to do my breathing thing,” Marinette babbled, trying to take controlled breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth, but they just kept getting shakier, shallow, rapid, she couldn’t slow it down. She vaguely heard Tikki becoming frantic, but the little voice was fading away as she became lost in the old feeling that she’d thought was left in the past.

Her pulse hammered, heart fighting against her chest as if to break right through, her clammy hands shaking where they gripped the shelf behind her for support. Her head was swimming, and if she could see anything it was most certain that the interior of the closet would be spinning around her. But as such she just felt her world wanting to tilt, and held tight to the shelf. She knew without a visual reference to ground her, she would lose all sense of equilibrium and take a nose dive if she tried to move.

Marinette wasn’t sure how long she’d been in the supply closet but it felt like eons, until the sudden turn of the door handle broke her trance and shot through her body like a physical force. She somehow still had the sense of mind to hope Tikki hid in time. And then the door opened, and an uncomfortable burst of light from the outside world encroached on her hiding spot. The light change disoriented Marinette and made her stomach flip.

Then the door closed and suddenly Adrien was there in the dark.  _Oh no, come on, please, not like this._

“Marinette?” he asked carefully, creeping forward in the dark as both of their eyes swam. She did not respond, unable to force out words past her hyperventilating, and it must have been so loud as Adrien found his way right to her in the dark. A hand touched her shoulder, making her jolt in surprise and dig her shoulder blades into the shelf painfully. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s just me,” Adrien whispered, and she wasn’t sure why he was whispering, she wasn’t a frightened animal that would run away-

-except that’s what she was acting like. Okay fair point Adrien.

The hand on her shoulder carefully trailed down, until his hand found hers and gently brushed her fingers until they relinquished their perch and latched to him instead. “There,” he said gently, bringing her hand up so he could encase it in both of his own, unflinching at her punishing grip. “Marinette, can you try to breathe a little slower? Okay? Here, with me, try to match me,” he instructed, moving closer to her in the dark and taking long, slow breaths, just loud enough for her to hear.

Marinette was still in a fog, but now there was an Adrien in her fog and if it weren’t for the warm set of hands enveloping her own, she’d have been sure this was a hallucination brought on by the attack. But he  _was_ here and trying to talk her down from hurricane level, and she was so glad that it was dark because she probably looked an absolute wreck of a human.

Okay, breathe, he wasn’t matching the in-2-3 out-2-3 rhythm but she could probably adapt. One of his thumbs was running gently along the side of her palm and she tried to focus on that sensation, instead of her swimming head or the claws of panic still trying to rip her down from the inside out. She focused on his hands. They were larger than hers of course, warm, deceptively soft for a boy, and… shaking just a little? Was that from her or him? No that was definitely her.

“Okay Marinette, you’re doing good, just keep breathing with me.”

A little jolt ran through her body all at once at his voice in the silence, and oh good, the noise sensitivity was there too. Just like she remembered.

Marinette wasn’t sure how long she’d been standing in this closet, but she felt the crashing waves begin to recede with every passing minute and every little whisper of his voice. It felt like forever, but the frantic hum in her head and chest began to quell. Her heart rate started to even, the shaking lessened, and she eventually managed to match pace with Adrien’s breathing.

After a few minutes of them standing in the dark breathing together, Adrien spoke, still holding her hand comfortingly. “Are you okay?” he asked carefully.

She wasn’t. She was exhausted, embarrassed, and a headache was coming on fast and unforgiving. But she was better, and probably would’ve had a much harder time toughing out the attack had Adrien not been there to work her through it, being of sound mind when she was not. So, she left out the details and gave him the best answer. “I’m okay now,” Marinette replied quietly, her voice sounding drained and rough at best. “Thank you. At the time I didn’t want anyone to see, but… you being here… really helped,” she mumbled, focusing on the dim outline of his form, but not where his eyes were.

He hesitated before answering, his voice sounding timid. “What was… I mean, what, um, what happened?”

“Panic attack,” Marinette replied, her face uncomfortably warm to admit the fact. She was also coming to acute awareness that he still clutched her hand. She wasn’t sure how long it had been, but it felt like a very,  _very_ long time. The exhaustion was hindering her usual nervous stuttering, but she was having a hard time thinking with his hands over hers. “I… haven’t had one in a long time, so I wasn’t really prepared for it.”

“Oh,” Adrien replied softly, sounding unsure of how to respond, like he was in unfamiliar territory. Bless his heart, he tried anyway. “Did something happen to set it off, or does it just… happen?”

“It’s different for a lot of people,” Marinette explained. “Sometimes it’s triggered by a sight, or a smell, if they’re associated with a bad memory for example. But sometimes there’s just no reason, it just comes on. I don’t super remember what I was even doing when it started, so I’m not sure which it was this time,” she admitted. Those memories from just minutes ago were hazy.

Before Adrien could comment, a buzzing from Marinette’s phone startled them. “Oh,” she breathed. “That must be Alya, she was expecting me.”

“I’ll walk you there, if you don’t mind?” Adrien asked sweetly.

“O-okay, sure,” Marinette replied, blushing as he finally relinquished her hand. Now her skin felt cold where his palms had been,  but she still felt closer to him than ever, and it was a nice sensation.

Adrien cracked the door and poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear, he didn’t want any unsavory rumors spreading over them coming out of a closet together. No one in sight, so he opened the door wider and gestured Marinette out. She followed him out and together they walked towards the courtyard, Marinette running a hand through her bangs to make sure she didn’t look too terrible.

“So,” Adrien said quietly, wary of any nearby people to overhear. “Maybe sometime when you’re feeling better, you could tell me a little more about it?” he asked carefully. “If you’re okay with that. Then I can be more help if it happens again when I’m around.”

Marinette smiled, touched by his concern. “Adrien, you were amazing,” she mumbled shyly, making both of them blush. “But yeah, we can do that. I definitely need to tell Alya what happened, so maybe sometime the four of us can talk. Me, you, Alya and Nino.”

Adrien smiled, letting out a sigh and fiddling with the strap of his bag. “I’m glad I could help. Seeing you like that… kind of scared me,” he admitted. “I was really worried.”

Marinette’s heartbeat sped up, this time for an entirely different reason, but before she could formulate a response there was a shout of her name.

“Mari _nette_!”

She smiled guiltily as her best friend approached. “Hey Alya.”


End file.
